Except this is all speculation. There's no justification ti I talk about anikan's legal status. It's never mentioned once.
It's a logical extrapolation based on the level of secrecy Vader's former identity is canonically subject to.
And the second vader was seen publicly, Ben would know who he was
Duh. I know. I've agreed with this. It is absolutely immaterial, because it happened after every event I am talking about. Fucking let it go.
None of that is Ben ' s call. He has no right to assume vader was dead, nor any reason. It was essentially 50-50. Last Ben saw, he was alive, and with help on the way in a world where medical technology is capable of saving him, plus the whole "the force will decide. "
He didn't have to be dead-- he was , as a matter of canonical fact, profoundly physically handicapped at the end of their encounter. He lost most of his limbs, he had third degree burns over more than 90% of his body, and his internal organs were burned so badly that he had to spend the remainder of his life in an iron lung, had to take his meals through a tube, had to wear what was essentially an astronaut diaper. The fact that he was physically unable to take care of a child at least until he recuperated enough to move around on his own is undeniable regardless of the quality of medical care in the GFFA.
I'm not saying Ben I'd a criminal, I'm saying (mostly tongue in cheek) that what Ben did would be considered kidnapping if looked at through the lens of the world we live in.
I'm saying that's debatable.
To be honest I don't think Obi-Wan's actions enter into it at all once the twins are born, apart from volunteering to keep Luke under observation. Yoda was the one who suggested they be split up and hidden, Bail was almost certainly the one who would have persuaded Padme's family, so if anyone's a kidnapper it would be him.
He beat a guy half to death after being sent by his superior to kill him
He declared he would not and could not kill that person (despite knowing that he was a mass murderer at least twice over), made every attempt possible to reason with him and evade him, did not attack him until he was attacked first, and ultimately disabled him in a nonlethal way. You'd never get a conviction in an impartial court.
faked his kids death, then secretly hid them with different families.
And I'm saying there's reason to believe that he-- or rather, that Senator Organa, who I believe did most of the actual legwork (having the advantage of not being a wanted fugitive purely on the basis of his religion), went through the closest thing to proper channels available to him.
In the movie he's justified morally (you could say he had the high ground) but by putting a different spin on it, such as vader point of view, it's kidnapping.